


Shadow of a Chance

by DarkrystalSky



Category: Dorohedoro
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28597125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkrystalSky/pseuds/DarkrystalSky
Summary: Dokuga ends up going to Hole with Kai.
Relationships: Dokuga/Kai (Dorohedoro)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 26





	1. Sorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by [Jerge](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jerge/pseuds/Jerge).

The bottle opens with a sound _pop_ as the lid flips away and rolls into a corner of the room and Smoke starts pouring out of the bottle. Smoke to open a Door is hard to come by, especially since it isn't a variant people normally sell. En has made it easy to access Doors to Hole if one is willing to go to his mansion, something the Cross-Eyes wouldn't dare. 

_Hole._

Dokuga has very few memories of that place. He's been only once, briefly, as a child. The day he met the Boss.

The Door forms, floating a foot above the pavement of the old rickety house they're currently hiding in. The Boss doesn't look at him, he only looks at the Door.

He asked Dokuga to find him a way to Hole, probably to hide from _him._ Dokuga tries to quiet down the buzzing, pressing questions he has. For now, the Boss' safety is the most important thing.

"I'll give you a piece of advice," the Boss says, suddenly turning towards Dokuga, taking him by surprise as he ruffles his hair. "If you meet _him_ , under no circumstances should you attack. _He_ reacts to killing intent."

Dokuga sputters and babbles something incoherent as the Boss heads straight for the Door. "...wait!" Dokuga lunges forward, grabbing the handle before him. "I should check if it's safe!"

The Boss doesn't really reply - he rarely does - but lets Dokuga step in between himself and the door.

With a sigh, fighting the tension in his body, he turns the handle and pushes the Door open.

It's not raining. Sunlight, filtered through a greyish sky, barely seen between tall uneven buildings, takes Dokuga by surprise.

The alleyway, long and narrow, skirted by a low wall, is empty at a first look; he can hear the sound of traffic and voices, but they're muffled, far away. They're good.

"It's safe, Boss," Dokuga steps aside to let him walk through. He looks around, stern, on guard.

This is it. He will hide away until that ghost - _Risu's curse_ \- fades away or they find a way to stop him. Until then, Dokuga knows he can't tell anyone about where the Boss went or why. His closest friends don't even know where they are now. Dokuga doesn't even know when he'll be able to see the Boss again.

"I…" he starts to say, but he freezes when a movement catches his attention and he bolts forward, stepping through the Door and letting the box and the bag he was holding fall as he jumps over the wall. He barely sees two silhouettes running away around the corner.

He allows himself to relax and jumps down, heading back to the Door the Boss has been keeping conveniently open. "There was someone, but they're gone now-" Dokuga explains. Another noise, a hiss and a groan, catches his attention, but now they're coming from the other side. In the abandoned building they came from, Smoke starts to gather and coagulate in a humanoid shape.

The Boss is still looking around, he doesn't seem to have seen it yet.

 _There is no time._ Dokuga lunges forward and slams the Door closed. He doesn't even have time to relish in the Boss' surprised expression: Smoke is leaking through the keyhole. Dokuga presses his palm against it, feeling the pressure and the sting fade as the Door melts under his fingers and he's left in an empty alley.

The realization of what just happened freezes his veins as he slowly turns around to face the Boss. The surprise vanishes from his face, replaced by the usual stern and unreadable expression.

"I- I'm sorry," Dokuga says, wide-eyed. "He was- I didn't-"

The boss picks up the sack containing Risu's head from the ground. "Do you have another one?"

Still in a panic, it takes Dokuga a while to realize what he means. "I don't…" he looks down. "But I can track another Sorcerer and get through their Door!"

"You'll just end up at En's. I don't want that." He turns around and starts to walk away. "With me."

Dokuga nods and picks up the plastic box from the ground. He's put food and utilities in there, been meaning to give it to the Boss as they parted ways. Maybe it'll still be useful, he doesn't know what expects them in Hole after all.

They turn a corner and leave the alley behind, venturing on larger streets where they're soon mingling with a crowd.

Dokuga can't help but look around with wonder: the buildings are towering and uneven, stacked on each other like an insane collage, but the people are even stranger. There's those with animal heads - like the man with tentacles playing a drum at the crossroads - and freaks with deformed features, even someone with legs so long it looks like he's walking on stilts.

"Keep up." The Boss calls and Dokuga realizes he has almost been left behind.

He moves with purpose, turning corners with no hesitation, looking right ahead. _Like he knows where he's going._ Dokuga realizes. He seems to know his way around. _Now that I think about it, the first time we met Boss was here in Hole...does he know this place well?_

They soon leave the more populated area, delving into a maze of alleyways and roads that smell like sewage and look even worse. Dokuga looks at the Boss, too ashamed of his carelessness, of his mistake, to even dare to ask him anything.

As the sky goes dimmer and the street lights turn on, they keep moving, until the box starts to feel heavy and his feet begin to hurt. Dokuga remembers he should have a bottle of energizing Smoke in one of his pouches but decides it's better to keep it for a more pressing situation.

So, after marching for hours, when the Boss finally stops at a fork in the road, Dokuga's legs collapse under his weight and he falls to his knees. 

The Boss picks up a direction and starts walking again, before stopping after a moment when he realizes Dokuga isn't following. He frowns, takes a few steps away and checks again.

"I'll be fine," Dokuga apologises, looking down. "I can track you down, you don't need to stop for- me?!" The last word is almost a scream as Dokuga feels a strong arm wrapped around his waist as he's lifted up like a potato sack from the ground. He hugs the plastic box as the Boss starts walking again, barely bothered by the additional weight.

At a loss for words, Dokuga decides to be as little bothersome as possible, keeping quiet as he watches the dirty ground fly under his feet for another hour or so.

It's dark when they stop and Dokuga is let go of very unceremoniously, almost smacking his face on the ground.

Having recovered a little, he's able to stand up and realizes their destination is an old but well kept traditional mansion, almost out of place amongst the modern and ruined buildings that surround it. There's also several trees, a sight Dokuga hasn't seen in Hole yet, and the name on the doorbell doesn't sound like a human's at all.

 _So, there are Sorcerers living in Hole, too?_ Dokuga thinks as they walk past the gate and towards the front door. _Does the Boss know this one? Or maybe this is_ his _place?_

Instead of going for the doorbell, the Boss goes to open the sliding door. Annoyed it seems to be locked, he tries more forcefully, making the wooden frame groan. The lights are on and there's a whooshing sound coming from inside, like a vacuum cleaner. There's definitely somebody inside.

Clearly impatient, the Boss starts slamming a fist against the door until the vacuum cleaner's noise stops.

"Yeees?" A voice calls from inside. Footsteps approach but there's no sign that the occupant will open the door for them. 

"Looking for Doctor Kasukabe." The Boss calls back.

There's a few seconds of quiet before a metallic noise announces the locks being opened from inside, as the same voice from before speaks again. _"Actually,_ it's Professor now." The door slides open. "I haven't been practicing in a long…"

Dokuga eyes curiously the figure standing in front of them. It's _uncanny._ He looks like a child but something about him sends Dokuga on edge and it's not the sleeve tattoos he sports on both arms, or the smile quickly fading from his face. It's the way he looks at the Boss.

"...time."

He looks almost _desperate._ Conflicted, balanced between joy, surprise and _sheer horror._ The cigarette in his mouth falls to the ground, the tip sizzling as it comes into contact with a puddle of water on the porch.

Dokuga looks at the Boss: nothing in his expression reveals anything about the identity of the person in front of them. He looks as stern as usual, if nothing a bit perplexed.

The silence is finally broken by the weird child. "...Ai?" There's a lot in that word, fear and hope and an unspoken prayer, lingering in the air.

It takes Dokuga a moment to realize it's a _name. Boss's name._ But aside from this revelation, he is more taken aback by the Boss nodding.

"I- this is not-" the child - Kasukabe? - covers his mouth with a hand that does nothing to cover the growing grin on his face. "You're alive."

Stepping forward, Dokuga watches in horror as he pokes the Boss's chest with a finger. Anyone else would've already lost a hand but the Boss seems to be uncharacteristically lenient towards this person and it's throwing Dokuga off.

Kasukabe giggles, puts his hands in his pockets and steps back, looking him over with a large and slightly deranged grin. "You've grown up."

"You've shrunk." The Boss deadpans, one eyebrow barely raised.

Kasukabe snorts and laughs. "Yeah, well, shit happened. Come inside," he finally looks down and seems to acknowledge Dokuga's presence, "both of you."


	2. Joy

The house is dusty and smells of alcohol and tobacco. The electric lights flicker as the wind outside picks up.

Dokuga studies the door as Kasukabe locks it up again: no keys are involved, but in case they need to run, it would be better to find a window or just smash through than bother to unlock it properly. Still, he commits the sequence of locks to memory, in case they would need to leave in the night.

Kasukabe gestures them to follow and starts to walk quickly through narrow corridors, lit by scarce flickering lights. Most rooms are closed but Dokuga catches glimpses of a large kitchen, a study filled with books and a large room that looks like a laboratory. In fact, it looks a lot like their laboratory in the Hydra Forest. Even the Boss seems to notice this, because he stops and opens the door fully, stepping inside.

There's organs under formalin and corpses hanging from the ceiling in sterile plastic bags. A bloody operation table sits in the center of the room.

"It hasn't changed…" Dokuga almost misses the Boss's words, uncharacteristically quiet, as Kasukabe stops and walks back to them.

"I guess not," the Professor laughs.

"It looks like yours," Dokuga finds himself adding, before biting his tongue and looking away in shame. He still doesn't know this person, if he's an ally or what, he shouldn't reveal anything, especially since today has been a mistake after the other.

The Boss doesn't scold him or ignore him, though. "There's a reason for that."

"Yours?" Kasukabe's face lights up. "You have a lab of your own, then?"

The Boss huffs and moves on, walking past the lab door, obviously annoyed everyone else stopped for him.

Kasukabe lets the question fall without pressing for an answer. He guides them to a room with a weird low table on top of a blanket. There's a library, a microwave oven and several notebooks scattered around. "Warm yourselves up, I'll be back in a sec," Kasukabe welcomes them in then leaves, disappearing in the labyrinthine corridors.

Dokuga hears the Boss sigh and watches as he lets the bag and knives fall on the ground, before slumping on the floor next to the window. He doesn't say anything, but Dokuga can still feel his annoyance.

He's burning with curiosity. They obviously know each other, the Boss and this Hole professor, but the nature of their relationship completely eludes Dokuga's understanding. The same kind of laboratory, the same research.

_ Could he be the one who invented Black Powder?  _ He wonders as he lets himself sit down, sliding his legs under the table. There's a pleasant heat radiating from the blanket, it makes his muscles feel like butter. Suddenly it's like all of the day's stress is melting away, leaving him pleasantly drowsy. He leans forward on the table and glances at the Boss, who is looking out of the window, and in what is probably the first time in days he can finally catch a breath.

_ That man has a very rare, powerful kind of magic.  _ This is what the Boss had told him a few days prior, when he asked Dokuga to lead Risu to Salmanaza Plains. If he'd known that magic was of the cursing type, he wouldn't have been so careless…

_ No.  _ Dokuga shakes his head.  _ I mustn't think like that.  _ He glances at the Boss one more time: unmoving, except now he's closed his eyes. He's allowing himself to relax in this place. Whoever this Kasukabe is, Dokuga realizes bitterly, the Boss seems to  _ trust _ him.

"I'm sorry," Dokuga mutters quietly, after they've been alone for a while. He needs to get this off his chest before he gets too sleepy to be coherent, and he's afraid.

Afraid that if he falls asleep, the Boss will be gone when he wakes up.

"I'm sorry," he repeats, louder. This time, the Boss opens his eyes and glares at him. "I shouldn't be here," Dokuga continues. "I should've stayed, I should've led them while you're gone. I mean, the others will be fine, I think…" he bites his lip. He didn't even tell Tetsujo and the others where he was going.  _ They're probably going to be worried sick. _ "If you want me to leave, I will, just-"

"You're here now," the Boss speaks, distracting Dokuga from his thoughts. "And what you did earlier was useful."

Dokuga looks at him wide-eyed.  _ Useful.  _ He hides a smile, dropping his head on the table, over crossed arms.  _ Yes, I can be useful. _

Footsteps approach and adrenaline shoots once again in his veins, chasing away any trace of drowsiness. Dokuga's hand is on his knives when the door slides open and Kasukabe walks in with a kettle and a box full of instant noodles.

"Leave it," the Boss scolds him. "He can be trusted."

Dokuga thought as much, but hearing him say it hurts a little.  _ Who is he? Why does he trust him? Why did I never hear about this guy before? _

Kasukabe hums a little tune under his breath as he prepares the kettle and puts the contents of five packets of noodles in a pot. "So, Ai," he speaks without looking at either of them,  _ "how  _ are you alive, exactly?"

Dokuga glances at the Boss just in time to see him frown and look away.

"Not gonna answer that? Alright," Kasukabe shrugs. "Then what about this, did you manage to become a Sorcerer?"

In that moment, Dokuga feels a chill down his spine.  _ Become?! Wha-? _

Immediately after, his train of thought comes to an abrupt halt as he sees a smirk briefly passing on Boss's face.

Dokuga doesn't think he's ever seen such an expression, however brief, on his face.

_ I want to see it again. _

"Get me a fresh sample and I'll show you something interesting," the Boss continues, in a somewhat amused tone.

"Looking forward to it," Kasukabe grins. "Although, if by  _ sample  _ you mean a Sorcerer body, it might be harder than you think…" the water starts to boil. He continues talking as he pours it in the pot, over the dry noodles. "Things have changed quite a lot since you...left." he glances at the Boss. "The Militia is gone, Sorcerers come and go as they please now. Very few try to stop them and fewer still have the power to."

"Oh?"

Dokuga watches as the amusement on the Boss' face morphs into a grin that Dokuga is more familiar with. He smiles too, after all this means they can continue the Cross-Eyes mission even as they're stuck in Hole.

Those bastards who practice on Humans aren't that different from the assholes who would mock and hurt the magicless like him, after all.

And they're going to walk right into the shark's mouth.


	3. Funeral

Haze believes it,  _ wants  _ to believe it, but he is, after all, still a scientist, and as a scientist he knows to always keep a critical mindset. He waits for the lights to turn off in the room he gave his guests and he listens until their breathing goes quiet: only then he gets ready to go outside. A phone call is enough to procure him a car ride: Vaux didn't sound too happy about being woken up in the middle of the night but Kasukabe had left him with no doubts about the urgency of the matter.

Suddenly, as he is slipping a pair of boots on, he notices a movement in the corner of his eye.  _ Weird,  _ he thinks,  _ I should’ve gotten rid of weird apparitions with yesterday’s cleanup. _ He’s surprised when he meets the eyes of the young man who arrived with Ai.  _ He was so quiet- _

“I thought you were asleep-” he starts, with a smile.

“Where are you going?” Stern, inquisitive, on guard. This man is a soldier, no matter how young. Lying would be unwise.

Kasukabe scratches his cheek. “I have to make sure of a certain matter…” he pauses a moment, in thought.  _ Maybe I can get him to answer some questions of mine… _ “Do you wanna come with?”

The boy hesitates, likely taken by surprise by the offer. He glances behind his shoulders, towards the inside of the house. He’s young, uncertain, he reminds Kasukabe of how Ai was when they first met, if not even more shy.

"What's your name?" Kasukabe keeps smiling, trying to make him feel at ease. "Sorry I didn't ask earlier."

"...Dokuga," he mutters. "Why should I come with you?"

"I might need someone with...more physical strength," he chuckles, flexing to show his skinny arm. "I'm gonna dig up Ai's grave." He admits, staring at the boy to gauge his reaction.

Surprise is brief on his face, quickly replaced by a thoughtful frown. "You thought him dead."

_ No. I didn't  _ think _ him dead. I performed the autopsy on his body, I saw the monks seal the coffin, I've witnessed them carrying it away…  _ All those words remain unsaid behind a thin lipped smile.

Before they can say anything else, two bright lights appear at the end of the road as a noisy, rickety van appears from around the corner, to approach and stop in front of the gate.

"You owe me for this, prof," Vaux sighs, eyes red and tired from the lack of sleep. "Who's the kid?"

When Haze turns around, Dokuga has stepped forward to exit the house. He nods.

Haze ignores the question, "have you brought what I asked?"

Vaux groans and raises the handle of a shovel. "If you're planning to do what I think you're planning to do," he squints, "you better not be."

Haze laughs. Vaux has always had too high standards for research. "If it comes to that, I'll pretend you were never there."

"For fuck's sake," he grumbles as Haze jumps on the seat. He glances back as Dokuga slips onto the back seat quietly.

"Who's that?" Vaux glares at him. Dokuga glares with equal intensity.

"Help," Haze shrugs, "his name is Dokuga."

Vaux frowns as he drives away from the house. "He better not be trouble."

-

The grave is empty.

He expected as much but seeing it sends a tumultuous mix of feeling into the pit of his stomach. Unsettled, yet hopeful, he looks at Dokuga, covered in dirt and sweat, looking at the grayish sky getting lighter and lighter as dawn approaches.

"So, he's alive," he tells himself. "Ai's alive."

When he found his body in that street, the skin of his head melting and rotting with the corrosive waters…

They sealed the coffin, not even his family was able to bid him goodbye.

_ If only I hadn't turned around, he- _

_ If only I hadn't let him walk alone, he- _

_ If only- _

_ If only- _

"Is he human?" Dokuga's voice brings Haze back from the storm of remembrance.

"What?"

"Is the Boss human?" He insists, in the exact same tone of voice. Haze realizes the boy isn't looking at him, his peculiar eyes are instead fixed on the mossy gravestone.

"I wonder," Haze doesn't know the answer himself.

_ I'll show you something interesting,  _ he said.

"No human would've survived that," he concludes. He needs more evidence, more proof, more  _ experiments. _

It doesn't take long for him to realize the predominant feeling isn't relief or regret, it's  _ excitement. _ He's on the edge of a completely new world of discoveries.


End file.
